He was 33 years old, a husband and the father of a four year old son with another child on the way. Friends say Mark Hummeldorf was an accomplished firefighter, paramedic and a marine who’d served in Afghanistan with distinction. And the fact that Hummeldorf died earlier this week in a vehicular accident is difficult to handle.

Early Wednesday morning, Hummeldorf was involved in an accident at Abercorn and Rio Road. We’re told someone’s car left their lane, hit Hummeldorf’s vehicle and then caused his vehicle to cross the line into oncoming traffic. Police say the circumstances surrounding the tragedy are still being investigated.

Mrs. Hummeldorf, who is a softball coach at the high school in Richmond Hill is expecting a second child in the spring.

Hummeldorf had been working as a paramedic at Parris Island since 2016. He began his firefighting career in Savannah in 2011 (after leaving the Marines). Steve Sokolwoski said the two met the first day of rookie class, “Everyone that has probably ever known him, ,right from the first you met him you clicked with him. He was just that type of person. He was always smiling even when he wasn’t happy and he made everyone around him laugh at the same time.”

The Savannah Professional Firefighters Association has created a GoFundMe account to help Hummeldorf’s family honor a man they say used his sense of duty as a Marine to serve the community every day.

“He was a professional and an expert in his craft, whether it was the Marines, whether it was Savannah Fire or Parris Island and he loved what he did,” said Sokolowski. “Mark became a paramedic because he sought after it, he wanted to do that. “He just wanted to serve the community, that’s really who Mark was,” he said.

Sokolowski says Savannah firefighters are just trying to help his family and that Mark Hummeldorf had a large community of friends and admirers. “There’s a lot of love and a lot of support for him and we’re just here help out in any way that we can,” said Sokolowski.

He also said this about his friend, Mark Hummeldorf. Had the situation been different and Hummeldorf had not been seriously injured he says Hummeldorf would have been the first one to exit his car to try to help other accident victims. “Absolutely, that was the type of person Mark was,” said Sokolowski.